In the beginning, there was the King Mackerel

Since this is my first post, and since I plan on talking about fishing mostly, I figured I would start at the beginning...

I've been into fishing since as far back as I can remember, and that would be about 1st grade in Mauldin, South Carolina where I grew up. Actually, I lived in lots of different places as a child, but South Carolina is about as far back as my memory can go.

I remember my father packing up the family to do some catfishing during those blazing hot summer weekends. We'd go to some small pond or another. I recall that all the ponds in that part of SC were really muddy, it's all that red Carolina clay. Being such a little tike, I don't think I ever caught much, but watching my father and older brothers real in those "mighty" 12 inch catfish planted the seed in me that would eventually grow into a real love of the sport.

My father was a field service engineer for Honeywell during the late 60's on through the late 80's. We moved around alot since the projects he worked on were all military related (infrared camera systems). It was like being a military brat without the military father. Though he did serve in the Army during his younger years, my dad wasn't a stickler for protocol. I think he handled those crazy clothes and long hair his kids were into pretty well actually.

No, my old man was a kid from the farm at heart. He grew up on a farm in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He joined the Army, learned radio electronics, and eventually ended up working at Honeywell. But he was always into fishing and hunting. Those were the only sports he learned as a child, and he kept them with him all through his life.

He took me on lots of fishing trips while I was growing up... but I think it was when we moved to a little town in the Florida panhandle called Destin that my interest in fishing really lit up. Destin was pretty small back around 1977 when we moved there. I'm told Destin is anything BUT small these days, though I haven't been back there in over 20 years.

My dad took me out on a fishing trip one weekend with a co-worker of his who owned a fairly large sailboat. That would have been around October 1977 I think. It was during Destin's annual fishing rodeo. We were trolling for King Mackerel that day. I suppose it was luck that we got a strike while it was my turn to watch the lines we were trolling. When it was all over, I had landed the biggest fish I had ever caught in my life. We went on to catch a few more that day.. but I think mine was the biggest.

That's me when I was 11 years old. An that's and my father standing next to me.

I've done a lot of fishing since then. I've caught a lot of fish that were smaller, some that were bigger.... but that King Mackerel is my favorite.